The Minnesota Lynx discovered the secret to beating the L.A. Sparks Tuesday night at Target Center. All you gotta do is hold all-world post Candace Parker to 6 points on 3-of-8 shooting with 6 boards and 5 turnovers.
It only adds to the fun, then, if L.A.'s other all-star, point guard Kristi Tolliver, scores 5 points on 1-of-7 shooting while comitting 6 turnovers.
And, thank goodness, because Parker and Tolliver's teammates played plenty well enough to win with an average amount of help (which would mean about 37 points per game) from the two. Parker and Tolliver shot 4-for-15 (27 percent) while the rest of the Sparks shot a solid 26-for-47 (55 percent).
Meanwhile, the Lynx hit 10-of-their-1st-14 shots to take an early 20-10 lead, but the Sparks stormed back to within 20-19, then took a 26-24 lead in the 2nd period. But that, and 2-0, were their only leads of the night as the Lynx took leads of 41-37 at the half, 66-55 after 3, and 88-71 in the late going. The final was 88-77.
Chalk most of that up to Maya Moore who scored 23 points with 9 boards. She shot 9-of-18 while her teammates were just 23-of-58 (40 percent). But more than her scoring was Moore's defense. 7 of the Lynx' 11 steals were hers, and those steals led to perhaps as many as 7 or 8 breakaway layups, and those easy buckets were ultimately the difference in the score.
The Lynx, in other words, were outshot 46 percent to 42, but got off 14 more FGA than the Sparks.
Still, the game did not feel like it was over until we got inside of 3 minuites. Aussie Jenna O'Hea hit 4-of-5 3s including a pair in the 4th quarter that got L.A. within 66-60 at 8:51 and 79-69 at 4:50. Parker followed with a finger roll and it was 79-71 at 4:23.
But the Lynx responded with a Lindsay Whalen 2 + 1, a 3 by Seimone Augustus, and another Whalen layup off Moore's 7th and final steal and, at 87-71 at 2:54, now it was over.
Augustus matched Moore's 23 points on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, while Whalen and Candace Wiggins added 12 and 10. Augustus also was the primary defender versus Tolliver, while Mama Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored just 4 points but added 8 boards and 5 assists and she was the primary defender on Parker.
The Lynx bench contributed 19 points, but was out-scored again, 32-19. Once a strength for this team, the bench has not looked good at all since the Olympics. But Wiggins had a nice game, and Amber Harris added 6 points. Still, the bench looked like it was just holding on until the starters got rested and got back into the lineup.
But make no mistake. This was a tremendously physical game and the Lynx gave better than they got. The Lynx absolutely positively play the game very, very hard and at a high rate of speed. If you wanna beat the Lynx, you've got little choice but to try to shut down both Moore and Augustus, and that's a mighty challenge.
Still, this was an almost perfect effort from the Lynx, especially by their oft-maligned defense. As a result, the Lynx are now 4 games ahead of L.A. in the race for home court advantage in the playoffs within the division, and they're 3 games ahead of Connecticut overall. Good thing, too, as 6 of their remaining 8 games are on the road including 2 at San Antone and 1 at L.A. Next up: Atlanta at home this Friday at 7 p.m.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
100 Years Ago Today
100 years ago today it was of course early in the fall 1912-1913 school year. No one alive at the time can have anticipated that the most momentous basketball season in Minnesota history was about to unfold.
The Minnesota Gophers
The season opened with the Minnesota Gophers' earliest practice sessions ever on December 1. But no amount of practice could hide the fact of Coach Louis J. Cooke's worst team. It had lost the services of its entire starting 5 including Frank Lawler, the Gophers' only Big Ten scoring champion before 1967 and voted as late as 1950 as the greatest Gopher ever.
The Gophers started out 2-1 and 3-3 with wins at Purdue and Iowa in the Big Ten. But forward Dobie Stadsvold was lost to a leg injury at mid-season and Minnesota lost its last 5, including home games with the two Big Ten teams it had already defeated. The Gophers' official record book shows them finishing up at 3-8. But counting 2 games against Hamline, including an embarrassing 30-15 loss, I see Minnesota winning 4 and losing 9.
The biggest news was not the team's inept performance, however, it was a decision by the U to ban the suggestive new dance, the tango, from the Gophers' traditional post-game dance. Between the losing record and the ban on the tango, attendance (and revenues) plummeted to the point where the very survival of the program seemed in doubt. As a result, the basketball program was for the first time allocated supplemental funding out of student activity fees.
Senior Men's Ball
With the Gophers down, the best team in Minnesota was probably whomever Lawler was playing for on any given day. Mostly that was a group of U alumni who called themselves the Ineligibles, but he also played for the Minneapolis militia, Company F, and north Minneapolis' Ascension Church.
When the Duluth Boat Club led by Bunk Harris, also star of the Duluth Central high school team, finished its season with a 9-1 record, it wanted the opportunity to play for a state championship. So it invited the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions and others to Duluth for a tournament. All declined and, with their incestuous and interlocking rosters, could hardly have played in the same tournament anyway.
There's no reason to think the Boat Club could have stayed with any of them. Duluth's one loss was to the Shamrock Club of Superior, WI. On a late January visit to the Twin Cities, the Shamrocks were demolished by the Ascensions 58-17 and also lost to St. Joseph's Church 19-11.
Duluth Central Takes 3rd in the Nation
But Harris, on the other hand, was almost surely the best high school player in Minnesota, and Duluth Central the best high school team--better than Fosston's state champions. Central declined to play in the 1st state high school tournament, traveling to Chicago for the national high school tournament instead. There they beat the high school legends from Crawfordsville, IN, 34-16 as Harris scored 16 points. Central lost to the host team from Evanston, IL, 37-23 in a semi-final, then defeated Canton, OH, 27-11, for 3rd place against vastly tougher competition than that faced by Fosston in Northfield.
Small College Ball Takes Off
Meanwhile, small college ball took a giant step forward with the founding of the MCC, forerunner of the MIAC. Hamline won its 1st of 3 straight MCC titles, while Carleton embarked on a program that would make them the dominant small college basketball power within 3 years. But for the time being, Hamline's champions were led by "Slip" Little and Grant Jacobson, both of whom had played for the mythical state high school champions of 1911 from Madison, MN.
But the caliber of ball in the small colleges was as of yet quite weak, as evidence by a January game between the St. Paul and Winona YMCAs. Winona won easily 51-30 as Parr, still just a junior at Winona High School, scored 32 points. Jacobson scored 16 for St. Paul.
An "Excessive Desire to Win"
But, all of this action took place against a backdrop that troubled advocates of amateur athletics.
George B. Aiton, Minnesota's Inspector of State High Schools, had commented as early as 1901 about what he characterized as an "excessive desire to win.... All athletic contests should be generous and free-hearted. The general desire should be for good work on both sides.... Visiting teams should be...greeted generously.... Contests should be an exchange of courtesies, never of jeers."
Harvard Dean LeBaron Briggs said in December 1912: "Coaches, in their eagerness to win, need constant watching; players here and there make you ashamed of and for them; but Harvard is trying...to get rid of unsportsmanlike conduct (and) dirty play...."
Now, on the very day of the Gophers' 1st practice of the 1912-1913 season, came word that Michigan had been expelled from the Big Nine (later the Big Ten). The conference had decreed that athletics must be entirely under the control of the faculty. Michigan's athletic board was made up of only half faculty, and half of students and alumni. The Wolverines would only return to the Big Ten in 1918.
Then on January 25, 1913, the Jim Thorpe affair burst into the open. Thorpe--American Indian, football and track star, winner of the 1912 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, the world's greatest athlete--was charged with accepting payment for playing summer baseball in 1911. Four days later, his amateur status was declared forfeit and he was stripped of his gold medal.
Summer baseball had bedeviled college administrators for years, and just one month before the Thorpe case became public the NCAA had proposed that "no college baseball player should play on a summer team." George Huff, athletic director at Illinois, responded, "Rules make liars...not amateurs."
Professor Alexander Meikleljohn, president of Amherst College, characterized college athletes as "intellectually knock-kneed, spavined, toeing in and stumbling over themselves academically."
Eligibility was a concern at all levels. Were the student-athletes representing the educational institutions--both high schools and colleges--indeed students, or athletes only? Were they making normal progress toward a diploma or degree? Did they have the intelligence, the knowledge, the skills to earn a diploma or degree? Or, were they mercenaries, hired guns whose job it was to form winning athletic teams?
Like Jim Thorpe, were they being paid? High schooler Bunk Harris--and many other high school student-athletes--played senior men's ball, and might just as easily have been paid to do so as not. Now that they thought of it, secondary educators wondered, were they being paid to play for their high school?
Basketball had been invented in 1891 by Dr. James A. Naismith, an instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, MA. The game had been aggressively marketed by the YMCA's as offering mental, moral, spiritual and ethical, as well as purely physical improvement, among young Americans. It built character, in short.
The Y's had long since ceased being the game's primary promoters and rules-makers, ceding those roles to the colleges. By 1915 the Ys threw in the towel. Their game had now been found to build bad character rather than good. The Ys withdrew from any and all roles in the governance of the game.
Fred B. Hill and Carleton College
It was against this backdrop that the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament was founded at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, the first such tournament being staged on April 1 through the 4th, 1913.
Carleton was in fact a hotbed of YMCA activity, including the athletics. Carleton Prof. Dean Weigle spoke to the Minnesota statewide YMCA conference on the subject of "Christianizing the World" little more than a month after the first basketball tournament. Weigle was also president of the Minnesota Education Association, whose annual meeting had been held at Carleton the previous December. They keynote speaker was Dr. Luther Gulick, in 1912-1913 the executive director of the Russell Sage Foundation, but in 1891 director of the YMCA School in Springfield. It had been Gulick who assigned Naismith to create a game for use in keeping people active and fit indoors during the winter season.
Rev. and Prof. Fred B. Hill was a Carleton grad, class of 1895, and was remembered as pitcher on Carleton's baseball team of that time. AFter graduation, he went out east, to the Harttford Theological Seminary, where he was ordained as a minister of the Congregational Church in 1903. While there, he also wooed and won the hand of one of America's wealthiest heiresses, Deborah Sayles. He returned to Carleton with his wife as Professor of Biblical Literature in 1907.
Soon after, Edward J. Cowling also came to Carleton as its new president with a focus of raising money to support the college's educational mission. The Hills bought Cowling a house, and they bought him a lifetime membership in the Minneapolis Club, which became the base of operations for Cowling's fund-raising. It would one day be the oldest existing membership to the club.
In 1907, the Hills announced that they would fund the construction of a gymnasium on the Carleton campus. It was dedicated in 1910 with the name Sayles-Hill Gymnasium not Fred and Deborah but in their parent's names. It was at the time the finest facility for a game of basketball in the state of Minnesota. Carleton hired its first faculty coach and athletic director, Maury Kent. This also marked the year in which the school's football, baseball and basketball teams became a permanent feature.
Rev. Hill was named chairman of the faculty committee on athletics.
In January 1913 it was announced that Prof. Leal Headley would give a series of lectures about Carleton at various Minnesota high schools. His objective would be to bring more young men to campus. Carleton's enrollment was about two-thirds women. The school desired to have "a substantial equilibrium of the sexes which characterizes a normal, well-ordered community." It was also observed that Headley's recruiting efforts might help enhance the quality of Carleton's athletic teams.
It was just two weeks later that the idea of a high school basketball tournament at Carleton was first broached. We now know that Hill had been approached by his former baseball teammate, Carleton grad W.H. Hollands, now school superintendent at Stillwater, MN. Stillwater had a crack basketball team, and Hollands was sure it was the best in the state. So he suggested to Hill that Carleton host a high school tournament.
Hill thought it a terrific idea, and announced that he would personally pay the travel expenses of the participating teams, so that no otherwise worthy team would be precluded from participating by the cost. With a man of Hill's stature advancing the idea, the Carleton administration quickly fell in line, and the tournament was held April 1-4, 1913, at the Sayles-Hill Gym.
A banquet was held on Thursday night to honor the participating team, after which it was decided that a committee should be formed to assure that there would be a tournament again in 1914 and beyond. The assembled administrators elected Hill as its chair. Three years later the committee took the name of the Minnesota High School Athletic Association, and it is this group that the Minnesota State High School League cites as its predecessor. Hill, thus, was the 1st presiding officer over what would one day become the MSHSL.
The committee quickly established eligibility rules for student-athletes, and limited tournament participants to no more than 2 games against non-member schools. If a school wanted to play in the committee's tournament, it would play by the committee's rules. Suddenly there was a mechanism whereby the behavior of the schools and their representatives (the athletes, the coaches, the administrators, etc.) could be controlled or at least influenced. Teams and individual student-athletes were disqualified from tournament participation in 1915 and 1917.
The Aftermath
By 1935 the tournament had long since removed to the Twin Cities and for the 1st time crowds of more than 10,000 people came out to see the Saturday night finals. The tournament suddenly had achieved a cachet such that Minnesotans wanted to know something of the tournament's history. It was in this environment that Claude J. Hunt was 1st identified as the tournament's founder.
Hunt had succeeded Kent as Carleton's athletic director, and it was Hunt who led the football team to its greatest glory, a 24-0 record in his 1st 4 years and an average margin of victory of 49-1. In 1916 Carleton defeated Chicago of the Big Ten, 7-0. Carleton basketball under Hunt also won its 1st 3 MIAC titles. Hunt retired as Carleton AD in 1931, becoming publisher of the Faribault Daily News.
With a modicum of research, it is easy (and would have been easy in 1935) to ascertain that Hunt was not yet a member of the Carleton faculty, had not yet arrived in Northfield from his native Indiana, in 1913. Yet, in 1957 and again in 1963, Hunt was introduced to state tournament crowds in half-time celebrations as the "founder" and "father" of the tournament, and was even given a plaque that identified him as such.
Hill--the true founder of the tournament--meanwhile, had died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. He had just returned from an assignment to the war zone in Europe, where he observed the conditions of the fighting men for the American YMCAs. His objective was to identify ways in which the Ys could support America's troops overseas. Upon Hill's death, the Northfield News wrote, "Mr. Hill had made himself such an important servant of the community, had given so generously of himself and his means to every worthy cause that made life more worthwhile in the Northfield community, that to carry on without him will be difficult indeed."
It seems likely that the high school athletic establishment simply wanted a living hero in 1935 and Hunt obliged them.
1912-1913 In Summary
All-State Team
Frank Lawler, the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions--Player of the Year
"Bunk" Harris, Duluth Central, Duluth Boat Club
Ralph Movold, Fosston High School
"Slip" Little, Hamline College
R. M. Rosenwald, the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions
Fred Chicken, the Ascensions, Company F
Fred Nord, St. Joseph's, Company F
Francis J. "Dobie" Stadsvold, Minnesota
Al Rehder, Red Wing Company L
Peter Guenther, Mountain Lake High School
Curt Timm, Planview High School, Plainview AA
"Bee" Lawler, Minnesota
Will Sheehan, Luverne High School
Parr, Winona High School, Winona YMCA
Grant Jacobson, Hamline College, St. Paul YMCA
Team of the Year
1. Fosston High School 14-1, 1st Minnesota State High School champion
2. Duluth Central High School, 3rd place in national high school tournament
3. The Ineligibles
4. Company F
5. The Ascensions
6. Hopkins Athletic Club
7. Chaska
8. Hamline College
9. St. Joseph's Church
10. Red Wing Company G
Coach of the Year
Rev. Fred B. Hill, Carleton College, founded the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament
Game of the Year
1. Fosston High School 29 Mountain Lake 27, state high school tournament final
2. Duluth Central 34 Crawfordsville, IN 16
3. The Ascensions 46 Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 27
4. Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 35 St. Joseph's 34
6. St. Joseph's 16 The Ineligibles 15
7. Chaska 23 Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 20
8. Mountain Lake High School 31 Stillwater 24
9. Luverne High School 26 Mankato 22
10. Hopkins Athletic Club 43 The Ascensions 28
The Minnesota Gophers
The season opened with the Minnesota Gophers' earliest practice sessions ever on December 1. But no amount of practice could hide the fact of Coach Louis J. Cooke's worst team. It had lost the services of its entire starting 5 including Frank Lawler, the Gophers' only Big Ten scoring champion before 1967 and voted as late as 1950 as the greatest Gopher ever.
The Gophers started out 2-1 and 3-3 with wins at Purdue and Iowa in the Big Ten. But forward Dobie Stadsvold was lost to a leg injury at mid-season and Minnesota lost its last 5, including home games with the two Big Ten teams it had already defeated. The Gophers' official record book shows them finishing up at 3-8. But counting 2 games against Hamline, including an embarrassing 30-15 loss, I see Minnesota winning 4 and losing 9.
The biggest news was not the team's inept performance, however, it was a decision by the U to ban the suggestive new dance, the tango, from the Gophers' traditional post-game dance. Between the losing record and the ban on the tango, attendance (and revenues) plummeted to the point where the very survival of the program seemed in doubt. As a result, the basketball program was for the first time allocated supplemental funding out of student activity fees.
Senior Men's Ball
With the Gophers down, the best team in Minnesota was probably whomever Lawler was playing for on any given day. Mostly that was a group of U alumni who called themselves the Ineligibles, but he also played for the Minneapolis militia, Company F, and north Minneapolis' Ascension Church.
When the Duluth Boat Club led by Bunk Harris, also star of the Duluth Central high school team, finished its season with a 9-1 record, it wanted the opportunity to play for a state championship. So it invited the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions and others to Duluth for a tournament. All declined and, with their incestuous and interlocking rosters, could hardly have played in the same tournament anyway.
There's no reason to think the Boat Club could have stayed with any of them. Duluth's one loss was to the Shamrock Club of Superior, WI. On a late January visit to the Twin Cities, the Shamrocks were demolished by the Ascensions 58-17 and also lost to St. Joseph's Church 19-11.
Duluth Central Takes 3rd in the Nation
But Harris, on the other hand, was almost surely the best high school player in Minnesota, and Duluth Central the best high school team--better than Fosston's state champions. Central declined to play in the 1st state high school tournament, traveling to Chicago for the national high school tournament instead. There they beat the high school legends from Crawfordsville, IN, 34-16 as Harris scored 16 points. Central lost to the host team from Evanston, IL, 37-23 in a semi-final, then defeated Canton, OH, 27-11, for 3rd place against vastly tougher competition than that faced by Fosston in Northfield.
Small College Ball Takes Off
Meanwhile, small college ball took a giant step forward with the founding of the MCC, forerunner of the MIAC. Hamline won its 1st of 3 straight MCC titles, while Carleton embarked on a program that would make them the dominant small college basketball power within 3 years. But for the time being, Hamline's champions were led by "Slip" Little and Grant Jacobson, both of whom had played for the mythical state high school champions of 1911 from Madison, MN.
But the caliber of ball in the small colleges was as of yet quite weak, as evidence by a January game between the St. Paul and Winona YMCAs. Winona won easily 51-30 as Parr, still just a junior at Winona High School, scored 32 points. Jacobson scored 16 for St. Paul.
An "Excessive Desire to Win"
But, all of this action took place against a backdrop that troubled advocates of amateur athletics.
George B. Aiton, Minnesota's Inspector of State High Schools, had commented as early as 1901 about what he characterized as an "excessive desire to win.... All athletic contests should be generous and free-hearted. The general desire should be for good work on both sides.... Visiting teams should be...greeted generously.... Contests should be an exchange of courtesies, never of jeers."
Harvard Dean LeBaron Briggs said in December 1912: "Coaches, in their eagerness to win, need constant watching; players here and there make you ashamed of and for them; but Harvard is trying...to get rid of unsportsmanlike conduct (and) dirty play...."
Now, on the very day of the Gophers' 1st practice of the 1912-1913 season, came word that Michigan had been expelled from the Big Nine (later the Big Ten). The conference had decreed that athletics must be entirely under the control of the faculty. Michigan's athletic board was made up of only half faculty, and half of students and alumni. The Wolverines would only return to the Big Ten in 1918.
Then on January 25, 1913, the Jim Thorpe affair burst into the open. Thorpe--American Indian, football and track star, winner of the 1912 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, the world's greatest athlete--was charged with accepting payment for playing summer baseball in 1911. Four days later, his amateur status was declared forfeit and he was stripped of his gold medal.
Summer baseball had bedeviled college administrators for years, and just one month before the Thorpe case became public the NCAA had proposed that "no college baseball player should play on a summer team." George Huff, athletic director at Illinois, responded, "Rules make liars...not amateurs."
Professor Alexander Meikleljohn, president of Amherst College, characterized college athletes as "intellectually knock-kneed, spavined, toeing in and stumbling over themselves academically."
Eligibility was a concern at all levels. Were the student-athletes representing the educational institutions--both high schools and colleges--indeed students, or athletes only? Were they making normal progress toward a diploma or degree? Did they have the intelligence, the knowledge, the skills to earn a diploma or degree? Or, were they mercenaries, hired guns whose job it was to form winning athletic teams?
Like Jim Thorpe, were they being paid? High schooler Bunk Harris--and many other high school student-athletes--played senior men's ball, and might just as easily have been paid to do so as not. Now that they thought of it, secondary educators wondered, were they being paid to play for their high school?
Basketball had been invented in 1891 by Dr. James A. Naismith, an instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, MA. The game had been aggressively marketed by the YMCA's as offering mental, moral, spiritual and ethical, as well as purely physical improvement, among young Americans. It built character, in short.
The Y's had long since ceased being the game's primary promoters and rules-makers, ceding those roles to the colleges. By 1915 the Ys threw in the towel. Their game had now been found to build bad character rather than good. The Ys withdrew from any and all roles in the governance of the game.
Fred B. Hill and Carleton College
It was against this backdrop that the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament was founded at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, the first such tournament being staged on April 1 through the 4th, 1913.
Carleton was in fact a hotbed of YMCA activity, including the athletics. Carleton Prof. Dean Weigle spoke to the Minnesota statewide YMCA conference on the subject of "Christianizing the World" little more than a month after the first basketball tournament. Weigle was also president of the Minnesota Education Association, whose annual meeting had been held at Carleton the previous December. They keynote speaker was Dr. Luther Gulick, in 1912-1913 the executive director of the Russell Sage Foundation, but in 1891 director of the YMCA School in Springfield. It had been Gulick who assigned Naismith to create a game for use in keeping people active and fit indoors during the winter season.
Rev. and Prof. Fred B. Hill was a Carleton grad, class of 1895, and was remembered as pitcher on Carleton's baseball team of that time. AFter graduation, he went out east, to the Harttford Theological Seminary, where he was ordained as a minister of the Congregational Church in 1903. While there, he also wooed and won the hand of one of America's wealthiest heiresses, Deborah Sayles. He returned to Carleton with his wife as Professor of Biblical Literature in 1907.
Soon after, Edward J. Cowling also came to Carleton as its new president with a focus of raising money to support the college's educational mission. The Hills bought Cowling a house, and they bought him a lifetime membership in the Minneapolis Club, which became the base of operations for Cowling's fund-raising. It would one day be the oldest existing membership to the club.
In 1907, the Hills announced that they would fund the construction of a gymnasium on the Carleton campus. It was dedicated in 1910 with the name Sayles-Hill Gymnasium not Fred and Deborah but in their parent's names. It was at the time the finest facility for a game of basketball in the state of Minnesota. Carleton hired its first faculty coach and athletic director, Maury Kent. This also marked the year in which the school's football, baseball and basketball teams became a permanent feature.
Rev. Hill was named chairman of the faculty committee on athletics.
In January 1913 it was announced that Prof. Leal Headley would give a series of lectures about Carleton at various Minnesota high schools. His objective would be to bring more young men to campus. Carleton's enrollment was about two-thirds women. The school desired to have "a substantial equilibrium of the sexes which characterizes a normal, well-ordered community." It was also observed that Headley's recruiting efforts might help enhance the quality of Carleton's athletic teams.
It was just two weeks later that the idea of a high school basketball tournament at Carleton was first broached. We now know that Hill had been approached by his former baseball teammate, Carleton grad W.H. Hollands, now school superintendent at Stillwater, MN. Stillwater had a crack basketball team, and Hollands was sure it was the best in the state. So he suggested to Hill that Carleton host a high school tournament.
Hill thought it a terrific idea, and announced that he would personally pay the travel expenses of the participating teams, so that no otherwise worthy team would be precluded from participating by the cost. With a man of Hill's stature advancing the idea, the Carleton administration quickly fell in line, and the tournament was held April 1-4, 1913, at the Sayles-Hill Gym.
A banquet was held on Thursday night to honor the participating team, after which it was decided that a committee should be formed to assure that there would be a tournament again in 1914 and beyond. The assembled administrators elected Hill as its chair. Three years later the committee took the name of the Minnesota High School Athletic Association, and it is this group that the Minnesota State High School League cites as its predecessor. Hill, thus, was the 1st presiding officer over what would one day become the MSHSL.
The committee quickly established eligibility rules for student-athletes, and limited tournament participants to no more than 2 games against non-member schools. If a school wanted to play in the committee's tournament, it would play by the committee's rules. Suddenly there was a mechanism whereby the behavior of the schools and their representatives (the athletes, the coaches, the administrators, etc.) could be controlled or at least influenced. Teams and individual student-athletes were disqualified from tournament participation in 1915 and 1917.
The Aftermath
By 1935 the tournament had long since removed to the Twin Cities and for the 1st time crowds of more than 10,000 people came out to see the Saturday night finals. The tournament suddenly had achieved a cachet such that Minnesotans wanted to know something of the tournament's history. It was in this environment that Claude J. Hunt was 1st identified as the tournament's founder.
Hunt had succeeded Kent as Carleton's athletic director, and it was Hunt who led the football team to its greatest glory, a 24-0 record in his 1st 4 years and an average margin of victory of 49-1. In 1916 Carleton defeated Chicago of the Big Ten, 7-0. Carleton basketball under Hunt also won its 1st 3 MIAC titles. Hunt retired as Carleton AD in 1931, becoming publisher of the Faribault Daily News.
With a modicum of research, it is easy (and would have been easy in 1935) to ascertain that Hunt was not yet a member of the Carleton faculty, had not yet arrived in Northfield from his native Indiana, in 1913. Yet, in 1957 and again in 1963, Hunt was introduced to state tournament crowds in half-time celebrations as the "founder" and "father" of the tournament, and was even given a plaque that identified him as such.
Hill--the true founder of the tournament--meanwhile, had died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. He had just returned from an assignment to the war zone in Europe, where he observed the conditions of the fighting men for the American YMCAs. His objective was to identify ways in which the Ys could support America's troops overseas. Upon Hill's death, the Northfield News wrote, "Mr. Hill had made himself such an important servant of the community, had given so generously of himself and his means to every worthy cause that made life more worthwhile in the Northfield community, that to carry on without him will be difficult indeed."
It seems likely that the high school athletic establishment simply wanted a living hero in 1935 and Hunt obliged them.
1912-1913 In Summary
All-State Team
Frank Lawler, the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions--Player of the Year
"Bunk" Harris, Duluth Central, Duluth Boat Club
Ralph Movold, Fosston High School
"Slip" Little, Hamline College
R. M. Rosenwald, the Ineligibles, Company F, the Ascensions
Fred Chicken, the Ascensions, Company F
Fred Nord, St. Joseph's, Company F
Francis J. "Dobie" Stadsvold, Minnesota
Al Rehder, Red Wing Company L
Peter Guenther, Mountain Lake High School
Curt Timm, Planview High School, Plainview AA
"Bee" Lawler, Minnesota
Will Sheehan, Luverne High School
Parr, Winona High School, Winona YMCA
Grant Jacobson, Hamline College, St. Paul YMCA
Team of the Year
1. Fosston High School 14-1, 1st Minnesota State High School champion
2. Duluth Central High School, 3rd place in national high school tournament
3. The Ineligibles
4. Company F
5. The Ascensions
6. Hopkins Athletic Club
7. Chaska
8. Hamline College
9. St. Joseph's Church
10. Red Wing Company G
Coach of the Year
Rev. Fred B. Hill, Carleton College, founded the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament
Game of the Year
1. Fosston High School 29 Mountain Lake 27, state high school tournament final
2. Duluth Central 34 Crawfordsville, IN 16
3. The Ascensions 46 Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 27
4. Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 35 St. Joseph's 34
5. Winona YMCA 51 St. Paul YMCA 30
6. St. Joseph's 16 The Ineligibles 15
7. Chaska 23 Fond du Lac, WI, Company E 20
8. Mountain Lake High School 31 Stillwater 24
9. Luverne High School 26 Mankato 22
10. Hopkins Athletic Club 43 The Ascensions 28
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
25-50-75 Years Ago
The times they area-changin'. Looking back on Minnesota basketball, and basketball in general, from 2012-2013, well, change is what it's all about.
In 1938, the center jump after every basket had just been abolished. You could no longer aspire to control the ball throughout the game and to shut out your opponents. From now on, you'd have to score some points.
In 1963, the solution to scoring some points came down to the low post, the "J" and the fast break.
By 1988, the 3-point shot was in place, though the modern transition game hadn't yet been fully formed. Meanwhile, girls and women's ball continued to gather steam.
1938
The center jump was gone but that's not to say anybody had figured out what it meant. What I wrote above, well, that's the way things went over the next, well, 25 years, by which time the low post, the "J" and the fast break were in place.
In 1938 a lot of teams went about business as usual. The Minnesota Gophers under coach Dave MacMillan played ball control basketball par excellence. And after some down years, it had finally paid off in a Big 10 title in 1937 (10-2, 14-6). And the 1938 team had both All-America guard Marty Rolek and leading scorer John Kundla back. An early win over highly regarded Long Island U. at Madison Square Garden 56-41 put the Gophers on the national map.
But a 1-4 stretch included losses in the 1st 3 conference games, and even a 9-game winning streak to close the season did not enable Minnesota to catch up to 1st place Purdue. The Gophers finished 9th in the conference in scoring ahead only of last-place Chicago, but the Gophers were 1st in the Big 10 in defense. Rolek repeated as All-American.
Just for the record, the 1938-1939 Gophers won their 1st 10 conference games for a 19-game conference winning streak, but they lost 5 of 9 down the stretch.
The high school tournament final was also a low-scoring affair as Thief River Falls won its 2nd title of the decade 31-29 over Minneapolis North. In 1932 Thief had finished up with the best record in Minnesota high school history at 23-0. Now they did the same thing at 28-0.
Elsewhere Hamline (for the 6th time in 7 years) and Winona Teachers won the MIAC and Northern titles, and the Rock Spring Sparklers and All Saints Church were the best senior men's teams.
Player of the Year--Marty Rolek, Minnesota Gophers
Coach of the Year--Dave MacMillan, Minnesota Gophers
Team of the Year--Minnesota Gophers
Game of the Year--Minnesota Gophers 56 Long Island U. 41
1963
Scoring was at or near an all-time high in high school, college and pro ball about this time. Yet, Bloomington came into the state high school tournament as the favorite based on its status as "the best defensive team ever." Well, the best defensive team ever lost to Cloquet in a huge 1st round upset 87-67. Cloquet, behind Mike Forrest and Dave Meisner, scored another 87 in the semi, and went into the final against Marshall as the prohibitive favorite.
Instead Marshall upset the Lumberjacks 75-74 in what many still call the greatest state final of them all. It just goes to show you that a run 'n gun, fast-breaking team simply cannot put three games together at the state tournament. The supportive evidence includes Lynd 1946 and Wabasso 1997.
Augsburg, led by 6-9 Dan Anderson, won the MIAC and the NAIA district title for the 2nd of 3 straight times, and became one of the few Minnesota teams since Hamline's 1951 national champions to win 2 games at the NAIA tournament.
The Minnesota Gophers went 8-6, 12-12.
Player of the Year--Dan Anderson, Augsburg
Coach of the Year--Glenn Mattke, Marshall
Team of the Year--Marshall
Game of the Year--Marshall 75 Cloquet 74
1988
Jessica Beachy and Concordia (Moorhead) put women's basketball in Minnesota on the map with a 65-57 win over St. John Fisher to claim the NCAA D3 national championship with a 31-1 record.
Meanwhile, Rocori, DeLaSalle, Edina and Tracy-Milroy won a series of 4 lackluster state high school finals.
And the Minnesota Gophers went (women) 5-13/9-19 and then men 4-14/10-18.
Player of the Year--Jessica Beachy, Concordia (Moorhead) women
Coach of the Year--Duane Siverson, Concordia (Moorhead) women
Team of the Year--Concordia (Moorhead) women
Game of the Year--Concordia (Moorhead) 65 St. John Fisher 57
Summary: The Best of 1913-1938-1963-1988-2013
Top Players
1. Marty Rolek, Minnesota Gophers 1938
2. Jessica Beachy, Concordia (Moorhead) 1988
3. Dan Anderson, Augsburg 1963
4. Nia Coffey, Hopkins 2013
5. Frank Lawler, The Ineligibles 1913
Top Coaches/Administrators
1. Fred B. Hill, Carleton College 1913, founded state high school tournament
2. Dave MacMillan, Minnesota 1938
3. Brian Cosgriff, Hopkins 2013, likely 3rd straight state title
4. Duane Sivertson, Concordia (Moorhead) 1988
5. Joe Hutton, Hamline 1938
Best Teams
1. Concordia (Moorhead) 1988 (31-1)
2. Hopkins girls 2013, likely 3-peat
3. Fosston 1913
4. Minnesota Gophers (16-4) 1938
5. Marshall 1963
Best Games
1. Marshall 75 Cloquet 74 1963
2. Fosston 29 Mountain Lake 27 1913
3. Concordia (Moorhead) 65 St. John Fisher 57
4. Thief River Falls 31 Mpls. North 29 1938
5. Augsburg 56 St. Cloud State 55 1963
In 1938, the center jump after every basket had just been abolished. You could no longer aspire to control the ball throughout the game and to shut out your opponents. From now on, you'd have to score some points.
In 1963, the solution to scoring some points came down to the low post, the "J" and the fast break.
By 1988, the 3-point shot was in place, though the modern transition game hadn't yet been fully formed. Meanwhile, girls and women's ball continued to gather steam.
1938
The center jump was gone but that's not to say anybody had figured out what it meant. What I wrote above, well, that's the way things went over the next, well, 25 years, by which time the low post, the "J" and the fast break were in place.
In 1938 a lot of teams went about business as usual. The Minnesota Gophers under coach Dave MacMillan played ball control basketball par excellence. And after some down years, it had finally paid off in a Big 10 title in 1937 (10-2, 14-6). And the 1938 team had both All-America guard Marty Rolek and leading scorer John Kundla back. An early win over highly regarded Long Island U. at Madison Square Garden 56-41 put the Gophers on the national map.
But a 1-4 stretch included losses in the 1st 3 conference games, and even a 9-game winning streak to close the season did not enable Minnesota to catch up to 1st place Purdue. The Gophers finished 9th in the conference in scoring ahead only of last-place Chicago, but the Gophers were 1st in the Big 10 in defense. Rolek repeated as All-American.
Just for the record, the 1938-1939 Gophers won their 1st 10 conference games for a 19-game conference winning streak, but they lost 5 of 9 down the stretch.
The high school tournament final was also a low-scoring affair as Thief River Falls won its 2nd title of the decade 31-29 over Minneapolis North. In 1932 Thief had finished up with the best record in Minnesota high school history at 23-0. Now they did the same thing at 28-0.
Elsewhere Hamline (for the 6th time in 7 years) and Winona Teachers won the MIAC and Northern titles, and the Rock Spring Sparklers and All Saints Church were the best senior men's teams.
Player of the Year--Marty Rolek, Minnesota Gophers
Coach of the Year--Dave MacMillan, Minnesota Gophers
Team of the Year--Minnesota Gophers
Game of the Year--Minnesota Gophers 56 Long Island U. 41
1963
Scoring was at or near an all-time high in high school, college and pro ball about this time. Yet, Bloomington came into the state high school tournament as the favorite based on its status as "the best defensive team ever." Well, the best defensive team ever lost to Cloquet in a huge 1st round upset 87-67. Cloquet, behind Mike Forrest and Dave Meisner, scored another 87 in the semi, and went into the final against Marshall as the prohibitive favorite.
Instead Marshall upset the Lumberjacks 75-74 in what many still call the greatest state final of them all. It just goes to show you that a run 'n gun, fast-breaking team simply cannot put three games together at the state tournament. The supportive evidence includes Lynd 1946 and Wabasso 1997.
Augsburg, led by 6-9 Dan Anderson, won the MIAC and the NAIA district title for the 2nd of 3 straight times, and became one of the few Minnesota teams since Hamline's 1951 national champions to win 2 games at the NAIA tournament.
The Minnesota Gophers went 8-6, 12-12.
Player of the Year--Dan Anderson, Augsburg
Coach of the Year--Glenn Mattke, Marshall
Team of the Year--Marshall
Game of the Year--Marshall 75 Cloquet 74
1988
Jessica Beachy and Concordia (Moorhead) put women's basketball in Minnesota on the map with a 65-57 win over St. John Fisher to claim the NCAA D3 national championship with a 31-1 record.
Meanwhile, Rocori, DeLaSalle, Edina and Tracy-Milroy won a series of 4 lackluster state high school finals.
And the Minnesota Gophers went (women) 5-13/9-19 and then men 4-14/10-18.
Player of the Year--Jessica Beachy, Concordia (Moorhead) women
Coach of the Year--Duane Siverson, Concordia (Moorhead) women
Team of the Year--Concordia (Moorhead) women
Game of the Year--Concordia (Moorhead) 65 St. John Fisher 57
Summary: The Best of 1913-1938-1963-1988-2013
Top Players
1. Marty Rolek, Minnesota Gophers 1938
2. Jessica Beachy, Concordia (Moorhead) 1988
3. Dan Anderson, Augsburg 1963
4. Nia Coffey, Hopkins 2013
5. Frank Lawler, The Ineligibles 1913
Top Coaches/Administrators
1. Fred B. Hill, Carleton College 1913, founded state high school tournament
2. Dave MacMillan, Minnesota 1938
3. Brian Cosgriff, Hopkins 2013, likely 3rd straight state title
4. Duane Sivertson, Concordia (Moorhead) 1988
5. Joe Hutton, Hamline 1938
Best Teams
1. Concordia (Moorhead) 1988 (31-1)
2. Hopkins girls 2013, likely 3-peat
3. Fosston 1913
4. Minnesota Gophers (16-4) 1938
5. Marshall 1963
Best Games
1. Marshall 75 Cloquet 74 1963
2. Fosston 29 Mountain Lake 27 1913
3. Concordia (Moorhead) 65 St. John Fisher 57
4. Thief River Falls 31 Mpls. North 29 1938
5. Augsburg 56 St. Cloud State 55 1963
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Lynx Point Toward San Antone, L.A.
The Lynx returned to action this week after a 6-week layoff for the Olympics--or, rather, for 6 weeks of Olympic basketball in the case of Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen. 2 easy wins have the Lynx thinking again about home court advantage and about defending their WNBA title.At 17-4, the Lynx have now clinched a spot in the playoffs, the earliest they have ever done so.
But the victims were Washington 98-69 and Tulsa 83-59 with a combined record of 8 wins and 33 losses.
Better tests will follow this week at Seattle and Atlanta, both 10-11. Seattle remains without Lauren Jackson, former WNBA MVP who is still with the Australian national team, and lost to the L.A. Sparks 82-71 at home in their return to WNBA action. Atlanta has its Olympians, Angel McCoughtrey and Erica de Souza of Brazil, back but lost at Indiana 86-72 last night. The Lynx should win these games, even on the road.
That gets the Lynx to San Antone at home on Tuesday, July 28, by which time the Lynx could be 19-4 and the Stars 17-6 (with a loss at L.A. this Thursday).
A week later on Tuesday, August 4, L.A. comes to town. By now the Lynx could be 21-4 and L.A. 21-6.
Then the schedule gets tough. The Lynx finish with 6 of their last 7 games on the road, 2 at San Antone, 1 at L.A. and home court advantage in the playoffs on the line. Right now a 25-9 finish seems likely. L.A. finishes with 4 home games and appears destined to finish in the 27-7 range. For the Stars, a win over the Lynx at home on the last day of the season could mean a 26-8 record, and could send the Lynx on to the road even for the conference semis. That is how tough this Western Division is. Road wins at L.A. and San Antone may be necessary for the Lynx to get home court advantage in the playoffs.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Lynx Dodge a Bullet
The Minnesota Lynx stayed unbeaten since the Olympics break with a harrowing overtime win over the San Antonio Silver Stars at Target Center Tuesday night.
Lindsay Whalen scored off the opening tap of the OT period and the Lynx went on to score the 1st 10 points of OT to lead 89-79 at 2:35. Whalen finished with 8 points and 2 assists in OT among her 15 points and 8 assists for the night.
The Lynx squandered a 71-62 lead with 5:44 to go. Jia Perkins gave San Antone their 1st lead of the 4th quarter 78-77 with a 3 ball, and Jayne Appel added a FT. Maya Moore answered to tie it up with a 2 at 1:07, and the Lynx sweated out 2 misses by Becky Hammon in the final seconds.
The Lynx got 19 offensive boards on the night to the Stars' 7. Rebekkah Brunson got 5 of those and a total of 20 boards to go with 17 points. The Lynx out-shot San Antone 44 percent to 42, but after 4 quarters it was San Antone 43 percent Minnesota 39. The Lynx made 7-of-9 in OT, San Antone just 1-of-6.
Seimone Augustus and Taj McWilliams-Franklin each scored 19. All 5 Lynx starters were in double figures, but San Antonio's bench out-scored the Lynx' 35-12.
The Lynx go to a league-best 20-4, San Antone drops to 17-7. But in splitting in their last 2 games, including taking the Lynx to OT at the Target Center, the Silver Stars showed themselves to be a solid contender in the WNBA West.
Lindsay Whalen scored off the opening tap of the OT period and the Lynx went on to score the 1st 10 points of OT to lead 89-79 at 2:35. Whalen finished with 8 points and 2 assists in OT among her 15 points and 8 assists for the night.
The Lynx squandered a 71-62 lead with 5:44 to go. Jia Perkins gave San Antone their 1st lead of the 4th quarter 78-77 with a 3 ball, and Jayne Appel added a FT. Maya Moore answered to tie it up with a 2 at 1:07, and the Lynx sweated out 2 misses by Becky Hammon in the final seconds.
The Lynx got 19 offensive boards on the night to the Stars' 7. Rebekkah Brunson got 5 of those and a total of 20 boards to go with 17 points. The Lynx out-shot San Antone 44 percent to 42, but after 4 quarters it was San Antone 43 percent Minnesota 39. The Lynx made 7-of-9 in OT, San Antone just 1-of-6.
Seimone Augustus and Taj McWilliams-Franklin each scored 19. All 5 Lynx starters were in double figures, but San Antonio's bench out-scored the Lynx' 35-12.
The Lynx go to a league-best 20-4, San Antone drops to 17-7. But in splitting in their last 2 games, including taking the Lynx to OT at the Target Center, the Silver Stars showed themselves to be a solid contender in the WNBA West.
Can Lynx Repeat?
The MN Lynx open the 2nd half of the 2012 season as the defending champions of the WNBA, with the best record in the league to date, and with questions, questions, questions! There was a league-record 10-0 start, then a stellar 13-1 record after 14 games, just 1 win short of the league record for a 1-loss start to a season. But then came 3 straight losses (before a pair or wins), and suddenly the sky was falling! Or, was it?
Well, the Lynx finished up the pre-Olympic schedule with 2 more wins, albeit against the hapless Tulsa Shock. But then came the Olympics in which the Lynx and only the Lynx had 3 players--Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen--and all 3 have performed very well for Team USA. Moore has been steady especially in adding some rebounds and assists to her point total. Whalen led the team in scoring in the pre-Olympic exhibition season at 11 ppg, and provided a lift in a late 3rd quarter-early 4th quarter run in which the U.S. finally took control against a scrappy Croatian team.
So those 3 losses have been...well, no, they haven't been forgotten and Lynx fans worry about the following.
Questions
1. Is the inside defense tough enough? In all 3 of those shocking July losses, the Lynx got torched by posts Sophia Young, Candace Parker and Tina Charles. Of course, doesn't everyone. But clearly these are 3 posts the Lynx are probably going to have to face and defeat in order to repeat as WNBA champs. And Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault was quoted as saying, after his team surprised the Lynx at the Target Center, that "we thought we could go at Taj," and so they did.
It didn't help that Rebekah Brunson was hurting that night and finished with 3 points in 18 minutes while the Lynx were out-rebounded 48-38. But, overall, the Lynx are getting about 11 offensive rebounds to 10 for their opponents, where a year ago the edge was 11-8.
It also didn't help that rookie Devereaux Peters missed that game with a broken hand. She has played more and better than anybody had a right to expect, scoring 5 points with 3 boards in 13 minutes. Likewise, back-up post Jessica Adair, with her 3.5 points and 2 boards, was out after knee surgery.
But as the injuries get healed and/or sorted out, the question remains, Are the Lynx tough enough to handle the league's elite posts? The jury is pretty clearly out on that one as it relates to taking on elite players like Young and Parker and Charles
2. Can the Lynx make and/or stop the 3-ball? Surprisingly, the Lynx are shooting 42 percent and their opponents only 34 on the 3-ball. But the fact is that the 3-game losing streak was caused by the 3-ball more than anything else. Consider:
• San Antone made 13 3s and shot 52 percent. Minnesota shot 50 but only made 5. Becky Hammon, whom Lindsay Whalen usually handles with aplomb, hit 7-of-13 and scored 23 points. Hammon was +9, Whalen was -15.
• Kristi Tolliver of LA made an insane 6-of-6 3s and scored 29 points. The Sparks made 50 percent of their 3s, overall, the Lynx 35 percent. Whalen was -7.
• Connecticut's Kara Lawson made 3-of-7 3s and scored 22 points. Lawson was +13 while Whalen was -13.
3. What is wrong with Lindsay Whalen? As noted above, Hammon, Tolliver and Lawson ate her up. Lindsay scored 29 points with 12 assists in the 3 losses and was a cumulative -35.
For the year her minutes are down from 28 to 26 anther scoring is down from 13 ppg to 11. Her assists are down from 6 to 5. She is shooting about the same at a solid 51 percent. So she is having almost the same season, statistically. But last year she was the Lynx' best player. This year that's clearly not been the case. Her back-up, Candace Wiggins, has been better in several games down the stretch to the Olympic lay-off.
If she's tired, she's going to come back even more tired versus several 1s, including Hammon and Tolliver and Lawson, who aren't playing in the Olympic games, whereas Lindsay is.
Still, that one would even ask the question, What's wrong with Lindsay?, is based on the assumption that she can and should be playing at a very, very high level. Hey, she's Lindsay! So let's put it this way. How high of a level will Lindsay be at after the Olympic break? MVP level? All-Star level? Or something less? Clearly the Lynx need more than a "minus" performance from Lindsay to repeat as WNBA champs.
4. Will the real Maya Moore please stand up? Overall, Maya seems to be just about the same player she was as a rookie, deferring to the more veteran players. Her scoring is up from 13 ppg to 15, her rebounds down from 5 to 4, her shooting up from 44 to 46 percent, and her minutes steady at 28. A good journeyman performance, especially when you consider her youth and the caliber of veterans that she is deferring to.
But at times--and with increasing frequency--she's been the Lynx' best player. She scored an average of 26 points with 8 boards in the 2 Tulsa wins to close the 1st half of the season. But she had disappeared in the San Antonio loss with just 4 points.
Maya has been in the league long enough and has the obvious talent that she can begin dominating if she puts her mind to it. And if Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen are going to struggle a bit more than they have in the past (i.e. 2011), then Moore has to assert herself more than she's done so far.
5. Can the Lynx repeat? Well, of course they can. But will they!
If comes down to match-ups. And as well as the San Antonio Silver Stars are playing the year--and as well as they played versus the Lynx on Sunday, July 1--they don't concern me half as much as the LA Sparks. The Sparks with the WNBA's best player in Candace Parker have the potential to be a powerhouse by the end of this year.
• In the post there's Parker with 19 points and 10 boards per game.
• At the big forward spot you've got rookie Nneka Ogwumike, already contributing 14 points, 7.5 boards and 51 percent shooting.
• At the small forward, Delisha Milton-Jones is at a respectable 10 points and 5 boards.
• Point guard Kristi Tolliver is coming into her own, increasing her scoring from 8 to 9 to 11 and now to 17 ppg with 5 assists, almost twice her career average.
• Veteran guard Alana Beard adds 9.5 points but shoots just 37 percent.
• The bench is a little thin with only Marissa Coleman and Jantel Lavender making a significant contribution, but Coleman is shooting just 30 percent.
Then there's Connecticut with MVP candidate, center Tina Charles at 19 points and 11 boards. Still, I prefer Parker, and Parker's supporting cast is better.
But can the Lynx beat the Sparks in the playoffs? Well, home court advantage could be crucial. Right now the Lynx are 15-4, San Antone is 13-5 and LA is 15-6 in the West. Connecticut is also 15-4 and leads the East.
But can the Lynx repeat? Sure they can.
• The Lynx are out-shooting their opponents by a ridiculous 49 percent to 39 percent, out-rebounding them 37-31, and out-scoring them by 12 points (87-75).
• Connecticut is our-shooting opponents only 44-43 percent, and the rebounds are even at 25. That doesn't sound like a league champion to me.
• San Antone is at 45 percent versus 43, and is being out-rebounded 33 to 35. Ditto.
• Which leaves LA, already defined as the toughest threat. They're at 44 percent to 42 percent for their opponents, and the rebounds are 38-34. Their margin of victory is just 82.5-79.
So, sure, the Lynx can repeat. All it should take is doing the things they've done--out-shoot and out-rebound the opposition--while also shoring up the inside D, making more and denying more 3s, and getting Lindsay and Maya consistently untracked.
So, finally, will the Lynx repeat? Against the field, yeah. But against the LA Sparks in the Western Division finals, it will come down to holding on to the post-season home court advantage and making Candace Parker play like somebody other than the best player in the league. That will be a tall order.
Well, the Lynx finished up the pre-Olympic schedule with 2 more wins, albeit against the hapless Tulsa Shock. But then came the Olympics in which the Lynx and only the Lynx had 3 players--Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen--and all 3 have performed very well for Team USA. Moore has been steady especially in adding some rebounds and assists to her point total. Whalen led the team in scoring in the pre-Olympic exhibition season at 11 ppg, and provided a lift in a late 3rd quarter-early 4th quarter run in which the U.S. finally took control against a scrappy Croatian team.
So those 3 losses have been...well, no, they haven't been forgotten and Lynx fans worry about the following.
Questions
1. Is the inside defense tough enough? In all 3 of those shocking July losses, the Lynx got torched by posts Sophia Young, Candace Parker and Tina Charles. Of course, doesn't everyone. But clearly these are 3 posts the Lynx are probably going to have to face and defeat in order to repeat as WNBA champs. And Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault was quoted as saying, after his team surprised the Lynx at the Target Center, that "we thought we could go at Taj," and so they did.
It didn't help that Rebekah Brunson was hurting that night and finished with 3 points in 18 minutes while the Lynx were out-rebounded 48-38. But, overall, the Lynx are getting about 11 offensive rebounds to 10 for their opponents, where a year ago the edge was 11-8.
It also didn't help that rookie Devereaux Peters missed that game with a broken hand. She has played more and better than anybody had a right to expect, scoring 5 points with 3 boards in 13 minutes. Likewise, back-up post Jessica Adair, with her 3.5 points and 2 boards, was out after knee surgery.
But as the injuries get healed and/or sorted out, the question remains, Are the Lynx tough enough to handle the league's elite posts? The jury is pretty clearly out on that one as it relates to taking on elite players like Young and Parker and Charles
2. Can the Lynx make and/or stop the 3-ball? Surprisingly, the Lynx are shooting 42 percent and their opponents only 34 on the 3-ball. But the fact is that the 3-game losing streak was caused by the 3-ball more than anything else. Consider:
• San Antone made 13 3s and shot 52 percent. Minnesota shot 50 but only made 5. Becky Hammon, whom Lindsay Whalen usually handles with aplomb, hit 7-of-13 and scored 23 points. Hammon was +9, Whalen was -15.
• Kristi Tolliver of LA made an insane 6-of-6 3s and scored 29 points. The Sparks made 50 percent of their 3s, overall, the Lynx 35 percent. Whalen was -7.
• Connecticut's Kara Lawson made 3-of-7 3s and scored 22 points. Lawson was +13 while Whalen was -13.
3. What is wrong with Lindsay Whalen? As noted above, Hammon, Tolliver and Lawson ate her up. Lindsay scored 29 points with 12 assists in the 3 losses and was a cumulative -35.
For the year her minutes are down from 28 to 26 anther scoring is down from 13 ppg to 11. Her assists are down from 6 to 5. She is shooting about the same at a solid 51 percent. So she is having almost the same season, statistically. But last year she was the Lynx' best player. This year that's clearly not been the case. Her back-up, Candace Wiggins, has been better in several games down the stretch to the Olympic lay-off.
If she's tired, she's going to come back even more tired versus several 1s, including Hammon and Tolliver and Lawson, who aren't playing in the Olympic games, whereas Lindsay is.
Still, that one would even ask the question, What's wrong with Lindsay?, is based on the assumption that she can and should be playing at a very, very high level. Hey, she's Lindsay! So let's put it this way. How high of a level will Lindsay be at after the Olympic break? MVP level? All-Star level? Or something less? Clearly the Lynx need more than a "minus" performance from Lindsay to repeat as WNBA champs.
4. Will the real Maya Moore please stand up? Overall, Maya seems to be just about the same player she was as a rookie, deferring to the more veteran players. Her scoring is up from 13 ppg to 15, her rebounds down from 5 to 4, her shooting up from 44 to 46 percent, and her minutes steady at 28. A good journeyman performance, especially when you consider her youth and the caliber of veterans that she is deferring to.
But at times--and with increasing frequency--she's been the Lynx' best player. She scored an average of 26 points with 8 boards in the 2 Tulsa wins to close the 1st half of the season. But she had disappeared in the San Antonio loss with just 4 points.
Maya has been in the league long enough and has the obvious talent that she can begin dominating if she puts her mind to it. And if Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen are going to struggle a bit more than they have in the past (i.e. 2011), then Moore has to assert herself more than she's done so far.
5. Can the Lynx repeat? Well, of course they can. But will they!
If comes down to match-ups. And as well as the San Antonio Silver Stars are playing the year--and as well as they played versus the Lynx on Sunday, July 1--they don't concern me half as much as the LA Sparks. The Sparks with the WNBA's best player in Candace Parker have the potential to be a powerhouse by the end of this year.
• In the post there's Parker with 19 points and 10 boards per game.
• At the big forward spot you've got rookie Nneka Ogwumike, already contributing 14 points, 7.5 boards and 51 percent shooting.
• At the small forward, Delisha Milton-Jones is at a respectable 10 points and 5 boards.
• Point guard Kristi Tolliver is coming into her own, increasing her scoring from 8 to 9 to 11 and now to 17 ppg with 5 assists, almost twice her career average.
• Veteran guard Alana Beard adds 9.5 points but shoots just 37 percent.
• The bench is a little thin with only Marissa Coleman and Jantel Lavender making a significant contribution, but Coleman is shooting just 30 percent.
Then there's Connecticut with MVP candidate, center Tina Charles at 19 points and 11 boards. Still, I prefer Parker, and Parker's supporting cast is better.
But can the Lynx beat the Sparks in the playoffs? Well, home court advantage could be crucial. Right now the Lynx are 15-4, San Antone is 13-5 and LA is 15-6 in the West. Connecticut is also 15-4 and leads the East.
But can the Lynx repeat? Sure they can.
• The Lynx are out-shooting their opponents by a ridiculous 49 percent to 39 percent, out-rebounding them 37-31, and out-scoring them by 12 points (87-75).
• Connecticut is our-shooting opponents only 44-43 percent, and the rebounds are even at 25. That doesn't sound like a league champion to me.
• San Antone is at 45 percent versus 43, and is being out-rebounded 33 to 35. Ditto.
• Which leaves LA, already defined as the toughest threat. They're at 44 percent to 42 percent for their opponents, and the rebounds are 38-34. Their margin of victory is just 82.5-79.
So, sure, the Lynx can repeat. All it should take is doing the things they've done--out-shoot and out-rebound the opposition--while also shoring up the inside D, making more and denying more 3s, and getting Lindsay and Maya consistently untracked.
So, finally, will the Lynx repeat? Against the field, yeah. But against the LA Sparks in the Western Division finals, it will come down to holding on to the post-season home court advantage and making Candace Parker play like somebody other than the best player in the league. That will be a tall order.
Gophers Girls Guard Glut
It seems like only yesterday that Pam Borton's Gopher women had a serious lack of depth at the guard slot. Barring injuries, no more. Here are the guards on the 2012-2013 roster and verbally committed in future years.
Senior--Leah Cotton
Junior--Sari Noga
Sophomore--Rachel Banham, Alex Ionescu
Freshman--Mikayla Bailey, Shayne Mullaney
2013--Joanna Hedstrom
2014--Kenisha Bell, Grace Coughlin
At this rate, the 2014-2015 Gophers will have 7 guards and barely enough roster slots for everybody else. Not only that, but a few highly recruited guards remain in the pool, uncommitted--girls whom the Gophers badly want to recruit and would welcome with open arms.
2013--Rebekah Dahlman
2014--Carlie Wagner
2015--T.T. Starks, Viria Livingston, Maddie Guebert, Kanani Ascuncion
2016--Nia Hollie, Taylor Koenen
2017--Cecile Keiger
But the question is quality, not quantity.
2012-2013
Rachel Banham took Gopher Nation by storm as a freshman last year, earning freshman all-America first team honors as well as Big Ten freshman of the year. Her 1st season ranks 7th on the Gophers all-time single season scoring list, and she ranks 8th in field goals, 3rd in field goal attempts, 5th in 3-point shooting percentage, 5th in free throw percentage and even 7th in defensive rebounds.
It's difficult to see much improvement of a purely individual statistical nature. Where improvement is needed, and anticipated, is in her team's 19-17 won-lost record (15-17 regular season, 6-10 regular season Big 10). And such an improvement would surely mean better movement on offense--ball movement, player movement without the ball, etc.
The Gophers last year out-shot their opponents 42 percent to 37.5 (35-33 percent on 3-pointers and 74-67 percent from the free throw line). They out-rebounded their opponents 41-36 (though only 14-13 on the offensive glass). But they averaged 11 assists and 17 turnovers, a truly horrifying ratio. Opponents averaged 13 assists and 16 turnovers.
The fact is that Banham is a score-first, pass-second point guard who had 17 more turnovers than assists. When the Gophers scored their biggest win of last season over Ohio State at Williams Arena, it was Kiara Buford handling the ball for long stretches of the game.
So how to deploy Rachel Banham is an open question. Leah Cotton, the senior, is probably the 1st option as a running mate, though her 35 percent shooting and propensity for turnovers is a problem. As a practical matter, that leaves freshmen Mikayla Bailey and Shayne Mullaney as possibilities. My personal opinion is that Mullaney is a better ball-handler and passer than Banham. I would give her the ball and play Banham at the 2 spot and see what happens.
2013-2014
Leah Cotton moves on, while Joanna Hedstrom moves in. But, of course, until Rebekah Dahlman decides where to play will be the big news. If she decides to become a Gopher, she moves into the starting lineup with Banham in a heartbeat. If not, Mullaney remains the best option unless she has proven otherwise in 2013. I don't really expect that Mikayla Bailey and Joanna Hedstrom are Big 10 caliber players. So, yeah, actually, depth remains a bit of a problem. Unless, that is, Dahlman is on board.
2014-2015
Kenisha Bell and Grace Coughlin are in, Sari Noga is out. But, again, the really big news will be whether Carlie Wagner is coming to the Barn or not. Though, frankly, even if she does, the starting lineup remains what it was last year--Banham running with either Dahlman or Mullaney. One or more of the freshmen could redshirt and depth would not be a problem. That is, if Dahlman and Wagner are on board. If not, then Kenisha Bell is pressed into service as a freshman.
The pecking order in other words is Dahlman, Mullaney, Wagner, Bell, Hedstrom, Coughlin and Bailey. The real question, if Dahlman becomes a Gopher, is whether she will be better than Banham.
2015-2016
Banham is gone. The starting lineup from among those already committed to Minnesota is Mullaney and Bell. Or, better yet, it's Dahlman and Wagner.
And, best of all would be Dahlman and Wagner with two of the following four incoming freshmen--T.T. Starks, Maddie Guebert, Viria Livingston and Kanani Ascuncion--setting Minnesota up for the future.
2016-2017 and Beyond
OK, too hard to project out any farther than this.
But in summary the question, again, is quality not quantity. In the short-term, is there a running mate to help the Gophers capitalize on the Rachel Banham era? Cotton? Noga? Mullaney? Who?
And longer-term is there a solid Big Ten caliber guard to succeed Banham after she's gone?
Despite the depth of guards that Pam Borton has already recruited, Rebekah Dahlman and Carlie Wagner remain the keys to the Gophers' recruiting success at the guard position.
Senior--Leah Cotton
Junior--Sari Noga
Sophomore--Rachel Banham, Alex Ionescu
Freshman--Mikayla Bailey, Shayne Mullaney
2013--Joanna Hedstrom
2014--Kenisha Bell, Grace Coughlin
At this rate, the 2014-2015 Gophers will have 7 guards and barely enough roster slots for everybody else. Not only that, but a few highly recruited guards remain in the pool, uncommitted--girls whom the Gophers badly want to recruit and would welcome with open arms.
2013--Rebekah Dahlman
2014--Carlie Wagner
2015--T.T. Starks, Viria Livingston, Maddie Guebert, Kanani Ascuncion
2016--Nia Hollie, Taylor Koenen
2017--Cecile Keiger
But the question is quality, not quantity.
2012-2013
Rachel Banham took Gopher Nation by storm as a freshman last year, earning freshman all-America first team honors as well as Big Ten freshman of the year. Her 1st season ranks 7th on the Gophers all-time single season scoring list, and she ranks 8th in field goals, 3rd in field goal attempts, 5th in 3-point shooting percentage, 5th in free throw percentage and even 7th in defensive rebounds.
It's difficult to see much improvement of a purely individual statistical nature. Where improvement is needed, and anticipated, is in her team's 19-17 won-lost record (15-17 regular season, 6-10 regular season Big 10). And such an improvement would surely mean better movement on offense--ball movement, player movement without the ball, etc.
The Gophers last year out-shot their opponents 42 percent to 37.5 (35-33 percent on 3-pointers and 74-67 percent from the free throw line). They out-rebounded their opponents 41-36 (though only 14-13 on the offensive glass). But they averaged 11 assists and 17 turnovers, a truly horrifying ratio. Opponents averaged 13 assists and 16 turnovers.
The fact is that Banham is a score-first, pass-second point guard who had 17 more turnovers than assists. When the Gophers scored their biggest win of last season over Ohio State at Williams Arena, it was Kiara Buford handling the ball for long stretches of the game.
So how to deploy Rachel Banham is an open question. Leah Cotton, the senior, is probably the 1st option as a running mate, though her 35 percent shooting and propensity for turnovers is a problem. As a practical matter, that leaves freshmen Mikayla Bailey and Shayne Mullaney as possibilities. My personal opinion is that Mullaney is a better ball-handler and passer than Banham. I would give her the ball and play Banham at the 2 spot and see what happens.
2013-2014
Leah Cotton moves on, while Joanna Hedstrom moves in. But, of course, until Rebekah Dahlman decides where to play will be the big news. If she decides to become a Gopher, she moves into the starting lineup with Banham in a heartbeat. If not, Mullaney remains the best option unless she has proven otherwise in 2013. I don't really expect that Mikayla Bailey and Joanna Hedstrom are Big 10 caliber players. So, yeah, actually, depth remains a bit of a problem. Unless, that is, Dahlman is on board.
2014-2015
Kenisha Bell and Grace Coughlin are in, Sari Noga is out. But, again, the really big news will be whether Carlie Wagner is coming to the Barn or not. Though, frankly, even if she does, the starting lineup remains what it was last year--Banham running with either Dahlman or Mullaney. One or more of the freshmen could redshirt and depth would not be a problem. That is, if Dahlman and Wagner are on board. If not, then Kenisha Bell is pressed into service as a freshman.
The pecking order in other words is Dahlman, Mullaney, Wagner, Bell, Hedstrom, Coughlin and Bailey. The real question, if Dahlman becomes a Gopher, is whether she will be better than Banham.
2015-2016
Banham is gone. The starting lineup from among those already committed to Minnesota is Mullaney and Bell. Or, better yet, it's Dahlman and Wagner.
And, best of all would be Dahlman and Wagner with two of the following four incoming freshmen--T.T. Starks, Maddie Guebert, Viria Livingston and Kanani Ascuncion--setting Minnesota up for the future.
2016-2017 and Beyond
OK, too hard to project out any farther than this.
But in summary the question, again, is quality not quantity. In the short-term, is there a running mate to help the Gophers capitalize on the Rachel Banham era? Cotton? Noga? Mullaney? Who?
And longer-term is there a solid Big Ten caliber guard to succeed Banham after she's gone?
Despite the depth of guards that Pam Borton has already recruited, Rebekah Dahlman and Carlie Wagner remain the keys to the Gophers' recruiting success at the guard position.
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